To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, pursuant to AQW 30570/17-22, to provide an update on plans to protect and restore Randalstown Forest following stakeholder consultation.

Following consultation with stakeholders Forest Service has concluded the review of plans for forests in the Antrim Forestry Planning Area, which includes Randalstown forest.

Forest Service received 55 stakeholder responses which informed the review of the forest plans. Following revision of the plans these were made available to stakeholders, including the plan for Randalstown forest, in late March 2022. These plans are now available to be viewed on-line in an accessible Storymap format via the DAERA website, Forestry Planning page.

The Randalstown forest plan reaffirms the overall commitment to progress the forest further towards continuous cover forestry. This includes regenerating trees over the longer term whilst maintaining and protecting areas of high conservation value such as ancient and native woodland, deadwood habitat and veteran trees.

Delivering the objectives of this plan will involve a further programme, within the next 5 years of gradually removing selected trees from the woodlands to improve the resilience of the forest and the diversity of tree species and age range.